


Though we travel the world over

by middlemarch



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Children, Domestic, F/M, Family, Outtakes, Questions, Travel, Vignette, allusions to Little Women
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:14:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23638138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: Not that far from Boston Common, late afternoon, 1875. The Fosters, at home.
Relationships: Jedediah "Jed" Foster/Mary Phinney
Comments: 11
Kudos: 10





	Though we travel the world over

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Mansion House Murder](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23384296) by [BroadwayBaggins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BroadwayBaggins/pseuds/BroadwayBaggins), [Fericita](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fericita/pseuds/Fericita), [MercuryGray](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercuryGray/pseuds/MercuryGray), [middlemarch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch), [sagiow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagiow/pseuds/sagiow), [tortoiseshells](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tortoiseshells/pseuds/tortoiseshells). 



“But _why_ do you have to go?” Elias said. Again. Mary took a deep breath. He wasn’t being impertinent and she had taught the children to speak their minds without fear, even though Jedediah occasionally remarked a mere quarter what she allowed would have meant a whipping from his father. His tone was always mild, halfway amazed, so she didn’t feel the need to argue with him about her approach to raising the children.

“It’s important. You know Papa and I would not go away without you if it were not,” she explained.

“Why’s it imp’rtant, mama?” Daniel piped up. He was leaning against her, the more demonstrative of the two older boys, more like his father in that way. Elias had her tendency towards restraint, something that was utterly foreign to Jed and Daniel. It remained to be seen who Johnny would favor, though like his brothers, he also had Jed’s eyes.

“We’ve had a letter,” she began.

“From Aunt Jo? Aunt Caro?” Daniel interrupted.

“No, silly. Then we’d get to go along and be jolly together and ride the pony Aunt Jo promised would be at Plumfield. A fat one, she said, remember? They’re going far away. Very far away,” Elias explained with such a tone of superiority Mary could hardly keep from smiling, recognizing her own voice in her son’s. Recognizing also how worried they were. Since Johnny’s birth, there had been a tension in the house, one she had not been able to dispel though God knows she’d tried.

“We’re going to Virginia. To Alexandria, where Papa and I met,” Mary said. Jed had come in or was about to, standing in the threshold to the sitting room. His expression was hard to read, though it might be the setting sun catching his dark eyes. He looked every inch the respectable family man, paterfamilias, attending physician; only she saw the tightness in his mouth, the way he made a fist of his right hand. 

“There are some people we need to see. It shan’t take very long and we’ll be back before you know it,” Mary said, willing it to be true. The journey daunted her, who had once been indomitable, and she already felt in her body the animal longing for her baby; Johnny was not too young to wean but she would not have chosen this time, this way, but they could not bring him. She should hear his cry for her every night and if Jedediah left her to sleep alone as he had been, she did not imagine she would have a restful night until they were back. 

“Shall you truly, mama?” Elias said, for the first time permitting them to hear his apprehension. He was such a little boy, they all were, Johnny just a baby, and Mary could not help feeling she was caught, between what she owed her children and what she owed to her past, to herself. To Jedediah. She had not envisioned her duties could be at such cross-purposes. She’d thought life would be easier when the War ended and it was only different.

“Of course!” Jed said firmly. “Eli, have you ever known your mother to speak a falsehood? I don’t think she’s capable of it! And I’ve known her a sight longer than you have, your whole life and another lifetime before that.”

“Papa and I will be back as soon as we can. Mrs. Hutchins will be here and Essie and Bridie and Aunt Agnes will visit too,” Mary repeated. Daniel had laid his head against her bad leg but the warm weight was what she needed, his unruly dark curls like silk under her hand. No matter what Jed said to them, the boys still pressed themselves against her, even when she held Johnny in her arms, eager at her breast; no matter how hard the day seemed, to feel them so close was beyond any balm. 

“And we’ll bring you back a souvenir. That’s French. Elias, what does it mean?” Jed said.

“To remember? Something to remember the trip by?” Elias said.

“I want a puppy,” Daniel said quickly, his constant refrain. Jed caught her eye and for a moment, everything was simple and glad.

“We’ll see,” Mary said, to prevent a promise or tears. “It will be time for your supper soon. You must go wash your hands.”

“Must we? We haven’t done anything but lessons,” Elias said. “And my experiment.”

“I’m not dirty!” Daniel said. 

“You can’t be hurt by some more soap and water,” Jed said, not brooking any argument. “Off you go.” The boys nodded, then ran towards the stairs as if the hounds of hell were after them. Mary opened her mouth to rebuke them, then stopped. 

“I didn’t know what to tell them,” she admitted. To herself and to Jedediah.

“The truth?” he said, shrugging a little. 

“What is that?” she said. 

“You’d be a better judge than I,” Jed said. “You always have been. You said you were sure we should go, you argued every point more skillfully than Harvard’s Chair of Philosophy, though a sight more prettily.”

“I am sure we should go,” she said, looking at him steadily. “I’m not sure of what we’ll find. But we must.”

“We’re not bringing back a puppy for Daniel, though,” Jed said, as they heard him clattering down the stairs.

“Heavens, no!” Mary laughed, then paused, gathering herself for a moment to stand. If she concentrated, she was nearly graceful. Jed missed none of it, the effort and the look she gave him to see if she’d succeeded.

“An early supper and an early start tomorrow,” Jed said. “It’s a long trip. I remember that much.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Ralph Waldo Emerson, which seemed appropriate for Mary.
> 
> I wrote this to inspire a series of outtakes and deleted scenes for our murder mystery since multiple people have alluded to revisions and shared other historical details that seemed ripe for expansion.


End file.
